The victims in a helicopter crash outside of Mount Pocono were headed back from a golf outing and headed back to the metro New York area, police said this morning.

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poconorecord.com

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Posted Oct. 10, 2012 at 3:35 AM
Updated Oct 10, 2012 at 2:17 PM

Posted Oct. 10, 2012 at 3:35 AM
Updated Oct 10, 2012 at 2:17 PM

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The victims in the helicopter crash outside of Mount Pocono have been identified by Monroe County Coroner Bob Allen. The two men killed were William Ellsworth, 52, of Califon, N.J., the pilot of the helicopter, and Tighe Sullivan, 51, of Darien, Conn., the front-seat passenger.

Stephen Barral, of Bernardsville, N.J., who was in the backseat, is listed in critical condition at Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Sullivan was founder, managing partner and chief operating officer of WCAS Fraser Sullivan Investment Management LLC in New York City.

“He was one of the most gregarious, funloving, generous people I have ever known. There will be hundreds of people who will agree with that,” said Sullivan's widow, Callie Sullivan. She described him as a “ball of fire” who was involved in numerous charitable causes in his community.

The group was returning from a golf outing and headed toward the metro New York area, police said this morning. Shortly before the crash Tuesday night, the chopper dropped off a passenger in Wilkes-Barre, according to Pocono Mountain Regional Police.

The chopper, which had been returning from an outing in Elmira, N.Y., got lost in bad weather and was attempting to land at Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport.

A truck driver reported seeing a chopper flying above I-380 shortly before it crashed. The wreckage was discovered about 100 feet from the road in the woods near Mount Pocono this morning.

A report of a missing helicopter reached police around 10 p.m. Tuesday but an initial search turned up nothing.

When Barral, the surviving passenger, called for help on a cellphone, the U.S. Air Force and the Monroe County Control Center were able to rely on GPS technology to hone in on the crash site. It is not clear how long Barral was in the woods alone. The wreckage was found around 2 a.m.

Allen pronounced Ellsworth and Sullivan dead at 4:20 a.m. The front of the chopper hit a tree, then the ground and landed on its side, Allen said.

The Bell model 407 chopper is registered to ACS Helicopter LLC in Far Hills, N.J. Efforts to reach the company this morning were unsuccessful. Ellsworth was a part-time employee for company.

Allen said Ellsworth obtained his pilot's license at age 21 and was a pilot for American Airlines in his full-time role.

Lewis said he did not know if the $2.3 million chopper was equipped with a weather radar. He said it did not have a so-called “orange box” that would have recorded flight information.

Helicopters are equipped with orange boxes while airplanes are outfitted with black boxes to record such information.

Authorities were awaiting the arrival of investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board from northern Virginia to arrive at the crash site, which was about a mile from Mount Pocono.